Line #47 Trivia/SuperSmashBrosUltimate


1	* ActingForTwo:
2	** In English, Creator/DavidVincent voices both Male Robin and Richter Belmont.
3	** Creator/YuriLowenthal voices both Marth and Alucard.
4	** As always, Creator/CharlesMartinet voices Mario, Luigi, Dr. Mario, Wario, and Waluigi.
5	** Creator/MakikoOhmoto is once again Kirby (in all regions), Ness (in all regions), and Lyn and Viridi (in Japanese).
6	** Creator/XanderMobus returns as the Announcer and Master & Crazy Hand, and reprises his role as [[VideoGame/Persona5 Joker]], while Creator/JunFukuyama (who already plays Roy in Japanese) reprises as Joker as well. This marks the first time the voice actor of Master Hand shares a role with another member of the roster.
7	** Creator/IkueOtani voices both Pikachu (in all regions), Tiki, and Morgana (in Japanese).
8	** Billy Bob Thompson now voices the male Pokémon Trainer, as well as Greninja and Charmander.
9	** Brandy Kopp voices both Palutena and Zelda (though the latter only in the World of Light cutscene).
10	** Creator/TravisWillingham reprises his roles as [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Knuckles]] and [[Franchise/StreetFighter Guile]], albeit through archived voice clips for both of them.
11	** Banjo and Kazooie are both voiced by Chris Sutherland.
12	** Creator/AkioOtsuka once again voices both Snake (in Japanese) and [[VideoGame/FZero Samurai Goroh]] (in all regions).
13	** The late Creator/UnshoIshizuka voices both Incineroar (in Japanese) and [[Franchise/{{Tekken}} Heihachi Mishima]] (in all regions).
14	** Creator/CassandraLeeMorris voices both Morgana and Sothis.
15	** In both English and Japanese respectively, Creator/MatthewMercer and Creator/TomokazuSugita voice [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Chrom]] and [[VideoGame/Persona5 Yusuke Kitagawa]]. As a nod to this, Yusuke's spirit battle has you battle Chrom. Sugita also voices [[VideoGame/TheMysteriousMurasameCastle Takamaru]].
16	** Creator/ShinoShimoji and Creator/SkyeBennett voice both Pyra and Mythra.
17	** A majority of the Mii Fighter voices share Japanese voice actors with important characters: Type 1 (Creator/YujiKishi) is Ken, Type 3 (Takashi Ohara) is Fox, Type 4 (Creator/AyumiFujimura) is Zelda and Sheik, Type 5 (Creator/RyotaroOkiayu) is Alucard and Zero, Type 6 (Creator/MakikoOhmoto) is Kirby, Ness, Lyn and Viridi, Type 7 (Michihiko Hagi) is Ike, Type 8 (Creator/MinamiTakayama) is Pit, Dark Pit and Knuckle Joe, Type 9 (Creator/HideoIshikawa) is Simon and Type 11 (Creator/KiyoyukiYanada) is Richter.
18	* AscendedFanon:
19	** Standard directional attacks, where one attacks while pressing a direction but not hard or fast enough to perform a Smash attack, were officially called "Strong Attacks" in previous games, but were called "tilts" by the community. ''Ultimate'' is the first game to use "tilt" in menus and the website.
20	** "Neutral" was the term used by the community when using any move without pressing a direction, while "Standard" was the official name used by prior games. In ''Ultimate'', the fan term is officially used in menus.
21	** "Dash Dancing" is a high-level technique that originated in ''Melee''. And now after many years, Level 9 Computers can and will "Dash Dance" in ''Ultimate''.
22	** Viridi uses the competitive term "edge guard" (the act of preventing an opponent from coming back on stage) in Incineroar's Palutena's Guidance skit.
23	** The Mii Gunner costume for [[VideoGame/{{Undertale}} Sans]] depicts him wearing pink slippers. Although Sans wears slippers in the original game, they appear white in all of his sprites. After the game's release however, it became extremely common for fan artists and modelers to depict the slippers as being pink. This game marks his first official appearance outside of merchandise with them colored this way. He is also depicted wearing a white shirt underneath his hoodie, which the fandom usually depicted him wearing instead of [[WalkingShirtlessScene an exposed ribcage]] which some could interpret from his sprites. The original model also gave Sans' non-gun hand actual fingers, again another common fan depiction, before Creator/TobyFox requested it be changed to a mitten-like hand.
24	** After it was stated that Joker entered ''Smash'' with a ''stolen'' invitation, this indicated that invitations are apparently interchangable between recipients, much like fanart depicting a character giving their invitation to another, usually out of kindness. This was brought up again with Terry and Min Min's reveal trailers, showing various characters from SNK's series of games and ''ARMS'' respectively trying and failing to grab the invitation.
25	** The tracks that play in ''Smash 64'''s Metal Mario and Battlefield stages return in this game, giving them English names for the first time... and they merely retain their Japanese names, "Meta Crystal" and "Duel Zone", almost certainly due to the community's long-time usage of those names.
26	** It is a common fan theory that getting into ''Smash'' is considered a huge honor InUniverse. This is referenced in both Terry's and Min Min's trailers, which show various characters getting excited over and going after the invitations, as well as Joker's reveal, where Morgana states the invitation is "the greatest treasure of all".
27	** A spirit from ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' appears under the name "Pneuma". This character, [[spoiler:Pyra and Mythra's]] combined form, is only called this once in reflection by the Architect, and this is never treated in-game as their proper name. The name was, however, commonly used by fans to differentiate her from her other forms.
28	* AwesomeDearBoy: Monolith Soft was very keen on the addition of Pyra and Mythra to the game, as they were the ones who developed their reveal trailer (Sakurai and his team only worked on the gameplay showcase), they contacted the original game's character designer to provide official art for [[spoiler:LastEpisodeNewCharacter Pneuma]] for her Spirit (as the character didn't have any at first), and finally uploaded a short video showing an excited Pyra (and a feisty Mythra) ready to enter the fray, to celebrate their arrival to the game.
29	* {{Blooper}}:
30	** Rosalina's showcase video has a glitch when she hits Luigi with her neutral aerial, where her dress suddenly deforms upwards and [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/602850002485641236/739971633716002906/unknown.png exposes her only-partially-modeled legs]].
31	** The 8.0.0. update released with Spring Man's logo on the LCD screen in Spring Stadium incorrectly being Springtron's. This was fixed in the 8.1.0. update, but is still fully visible in "Mr. Sakurai Presents Min Min".
32	** [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3 Noah & Mio]]'s Spirit doesn't label them as being from the ''Xenoblade Chronicles'' series.
33	* CelebrityVoiceActor: Creator/HaleyJoelOsment reprises his role as [[Franchise/KingdomHearts Sora]] (albeit through archived audio), making him this by default.
34	* ContentLeak:
35	** Some information on the roster was leaked by Website/GameFAQs user Vergeben. Prior to the E3 2018 reveal, he stated everyone from ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU 3DS/Wii U]]'' would return, and that [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Ridley]] would finally become playable, alongside Simon from ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}''. Post-E3, he'd mention [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing Isabelle]], [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ken]], and [[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon Incineroar]] as playable before their official reveals. Before E3 2019, he leaked Banjo and Erdrick, though the latter was actually a PaletteSwap of the ''VideoGame/DragonQuestXI'' hero. Vergeben also claimed that ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' content would arrive in the game, although this claim would not be confirmed until over two years later, when Steve was confirmed as the second fighter in the Fighters Pass Vol. 2.
36	** [=ResetEra=] administrator Shinobi teased Banjo & Kazooie days before they were officially announced.
37	** [[https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/426/667/729.png There was actually a leak]] for the three final pre-Fighters Pass characters, including Piranha Plant, more than a month before the final pre-launch ''Smash'' Direct, though it didn't circulate until after the Direct.
38	** On the night before the August 8, 2018 Direct, Nintendo accidentally posted the then-recently uploaded "Galaga Medley" with the title of "Bloody Tears/Monster Dance" on ''Ultimate''[='=]s website, which spoiled that ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' was getting some form of representation.
39	** On September 21, 2018, [[https://www.ssbwiki.com/images/a/aa/SSBU_Ken_Screenshot_Leak.jpg this image]] of Ken was posted on 4chan that caused a lot of debate on whether or not it was real, especially since the Ken model was never traced back to any existing ones, and the screenshot appears to contain graphical oddities that have been observed in demo builds. Sure enough, the November 1st, 2018 Direct not only confirmed Ken, but the model from the pic as well.
40	** Two weeks before the release day, the entire game, including the FinalBoss, was leaked onto the internet thanks to Nintendo sending early copies to a Mexican mom-and-pop store that ended up selling it prematurely, and was able to be illegally downloaded from online.
41	** On March 30, 2019, Best Buy's website featured an ad for the Fighters Pass which included a never-before-seen Joker render. It was removed later the next day, which blatantly confirmed it was his official render placed in the ad by mistake.
42	** On April 9, 2019, a TV ad for the game briefly showed Stage Builder on a menu screen in the background, a mode which had since been missing from launch and was later confirmed to be added in the 3.0.0 update.
43	** On July 26, 2019, 8 spirits of characters from ''Dragon Quest'' were found to have been uploaded on ''Ultimate''[='=]s spirit database.
44	** On September 1, 2019, a copyright for Creator/{{SNK}} was added to the page for Challenger Pack 4 on Nintendo of Europe's website. The day after, multiple leakers that included Vergeben and Sabi claimed that it would be [[VideoGame/FatalFury Terry]] [[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters Bogard]], which was verified in the September 4th, 2019 ''WebVideo/NintendoDirect''.
45	** Months before the final Mr. Sakurai Presents, an anonymous source on 4chan that suggested he was from Disney Music claimed that Nintendo had requested permission from Disney to use Kingdom Hearts music in a "digital event" to take place on October 5. Come that date, and Sora would be announced as the final DLC character. This was the only sense of content leakage that occurred officially for the Wave 2 pack.
46	* CreatorBacklash: Tetsuya Nomura reveals it was him instead of Creator/{{Disney}} who was against adding Sora as a character in ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'', as he felt it would go against the lore of ''Franchise/KingdomHearts''. However, he mentions he was pleased with the positive reception Sora received upon his inclusion.
47	* CreatorsFavorite:
48	** In the August 8, 2018 WebVideo/NintendoDirect, Sakurai said that the ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' series was very popular with the music team. Hence the reason why "Dracula's Castle", the sole ''Castlevania'' stage, contains a whopping '''34''' music tracks, 12 of which are new remixes.
49	** He also declared that ''Franchise/MegaMan'' was popular with the composers as well, and one person, Takeshi Kuramochi, single-handedly swelled the library of ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' remixes.
50	** Ridley's down taunt (the one where he stands up straight) is one of Sakurai's favorites from this game.
51	** Min Min's inclusion as a fighter was specifically requested by ''VideoGame/{{ARMS}}'' producer Kosuke Yabuki, as she's his favorite character.
52	** The Creator/{{SNK}} content in the game could be considered this, as it pulls from their entire library of games, rather than just ''Fatal Fury'' or ''The King of Fighters'', and in addition to Terry's inclusion as a fighter, also featured 20 characters as stage cameos in the "King of Fighters Stadium" stage, a whopping ''50 songs'', and a trailer that was confirmed by Sakurai to have been done in-house by Bandai Namco.
53	* CrossDressingVoices:
54	** The [[Franchise/{{Splatoon}} Inklings]] of both genders are voiced by Yuki Tsujii, a man, albeit through a rather heavy voice filter.
55	** [[VideoGame/Persona5 Morgana]], a male cat, is voiced by Creator/CassandraLeeMorris and Creator/IkueOtani in English and Japanese respectively.
56	** The [[VideoGame/DragonQuestXI Luminary]] (the default costume for the Hero) is voiced by Creator/MitsukiSaiga, a woman.
57	** [[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Kazooie]], a female bird, is voiced by Chris Sutherland.
58	* CutSong: More like ''"Trimmed"'', to be exact. Several lengthy songs, such as "The DK Rap" from ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'', and "Cremia Attacks" from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' were shortened, likely to fit more songs in.
59	* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: ''WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}}'' made a "Jimpressions" video about this game, but they mis-identifies the game's developer as Creator/HalLaboratory. HAL hasn't worked on a ''Smash Bros'' game since ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee''; all subsequent games in the series have been made by other developers, with ''Ultimate'', as well as ''Wii U and 3DS'', being developed by a team at Bandai-Namco.
60	* DemandOverload:
61	** On Christmas Day, 2018, so many people tried to download the game at once that many reported having to wait up to 6 hours before the download finished.
62	** Within seconds of the 3.0 update (which includes Joker and the stage builder) the server immediately overloaded due to many people trying to update the game at once. It also managed to take down the eShop for ''everyone'' as well since many people were trying to buy either the Joker DLC or Fighters Pass. {{History repeat\|s}}ed when [[Franchise/KingdomHearts Sora]] joined the battle with the 13.0.0 update.
63	** The announcement of [[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Steve/Alex]] caused Twitter to crash within seconds for a few minutes.
64	* DescendedCreator: Creator/GregChun is the voice of Ike and the music director of "Lifelight", the theme for ''Ultimate''.
65	* DevelopmentGag:
66	** Back in ''Brawl'', Ridley was planned to be an Assist Trophy, before being converted into a boss. The similarly-draconic [[VideoGame/MonsterHunter Rathalos]] appears as an Assist Trophy ''and'' a boss.
67	** Ditto was planned to be a Poké Ball Pokémon all the way back in ''Melee'', but was scrapped due to difficulties getting it to work. 17 years later, Ditto finally ended up appearing in ''Ultimate'', functioning exactly how it was planned to in ''Melee'' (transforming into an AI-controlled copy of the player who summoned it).
68	** Banjo's backpack has a flap that opens at the bottom, as seen when using Talon Trot and Grenade Egg. This was something his designer Steve Mayles [[https://twitter.com/WinkySteve/status/1139188570571399168 had wanted to include]] since the first ''Banjo-Kazooie''.
69	** Ninjara spends the second most amount of time with the envelope before he loses it, which reflects how close he was to becoming a fully playable character; Sakurai, when talking about why Min Min was picked, said that his choices were down to Min Min or Ninjara, with Min Min winning out due to ''VideoGame/{{ARMS}}'' producer Kosuke Yabuki telling Sakurai he wanted her in.
70	** Rex didn't make the cut for ''Ultimate'' because ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' came out well after the roster was decided on. The trailer for Pyra and Mythra makes a jab at this when Pyra reveals her invite, with Rex saying that he was originally gonna be in ''Smash''.
71	* DuelingGames:
72	** With ''VideoGame/JumpForce'', due to being a crossover fighting game of ''Magazine/ShonenJump'' works while ''Ultimate'' is a crossover fighting game featuring the characters from Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s video game series and other related works. Plus, both games were announced at [[UsefulNotes/ElectronicEntertainmentExpo E3 2018]], and were released on competing consoles (''Ultimate'' is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch, while ''Jump Force'' instead was released on the Platform/PlayStation4 and Platform/XboxOne with no set release on the Switch itself at the time, until 2020 when it would end up coming to the Switch). Both of them featured characters from ''Franchise/DragonQuest'' in their rosters.
73	** To a lesser extent, ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCrossTagBattle''. Both games are easy to play MassiveMultiplayerCrossover fighter games with characters from various franchises (though in ''BB:CTB's'' case just multiple characters [[VideoGame/BlazBlue from]] [[VideoGame/Persona4Arena four]] [[VideoGame/UnderNightInBirth different]] [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} franchises]] compared to ''Ultimate'') being released almost six months apart from each other and unlike ''Jump Force'' it was also ported to the Nintendo Switch but not Xbox One. It also features characters and franchises that were involved with by two different creators that died in the same year of 2015 (Creator/SatoruIwata for ''Ultimate'' and Creator/MontyOum for ''BB:CTB'').
74	** With ''VideoGame/NickelodeonAllStarBrawl'', due to both games being {{Massive Multiplayer Crossover}}s, in ''NASB''[='=]s case featuring Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} characters, both games being {{Platform Fighter}}s, and both are available for the Nintendo Switch. Unlike ''Ultimate'', ''Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl'' is also available on its competing consoles, Platform/XBoxOne, Platform/PlayStation4 and Platform/PlayStation5.
75	* EnforcedMethodActing: Creator/ErikaHarlacher [[https://twitter.com/ErikaHarlacher/status/1070901086557396992 stated]] that Ann’s BigWhat in [[VideoGame/Persona5 Joker's]] reveal trailer was a genuine reaction from her.
76	* ExecutiveMeddling:
77	** According to Sakurai's book published in 2019, DLC was planned without the developers' will.
78	** One of the reasons why Mai Shiranui (a MsFanservice with a BuxomBeautyStandard figure) wasn't included with the rest of the SNK cameos was because CERO's (Japan's equivalent of the ESRB) restrictions meant she couldn't be included in a game rated for all ages unless her outfit and appearance were toned down, which Sakurai wasn't willing to do.
79	** When Nintendo initially brought up the idea of putting [[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Steve]] into the game, Sakurai resisted on the grounds that implementing the character while being true to their roots would be difficult. Nintendo then asked him to try anyway.
80	** Sakurai joked about Nintendo's involvement when showcasing Kazuya:
81	--->''One day, I heard a voice from the heavens. It might've been from a company with the Japanese character for "heaven" in its name.''[[note]]referring to the "ten" in "Nintendo"[[/note]]'' [...] The voice was telling me, "Masahiro... Masahiro... You must get Tekken into ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.''" Like it's that easy.''
82	* ExiledFromContinuity: Presumably due to legal reasons (and most of them not originating from video games), other than Sakurai namedropping Maleficent during the presentation to explain Hollow Bastion's history, some brief gameplay footage and Sora's keychain still being a WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse emblem, no other Creator/{{Disney}} characters or indica appear in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' DLC proper. Disney characters are even removed from the stained glass in Dive to the Heart. Sora's alternate costumes look to get around this issue, with Valor Form being him fused with WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}}, Wisdom Form being him fused with WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck, and Timeless River replicating the art style of WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts.
83	* FandomNod:
84	** Ridley's announcement trailer carried the slogan "Ridley Hits the Big Time!", playfully referencing how the character was considered "too big" for ''Smash'' and would be unlikely to be included for that reason. His Palutena's Guidance even begins with Pit excitedly screaming out "RIDLEY CONFIRMED!", much like the general fan reaction.
85	** It was assumed by some fans, due to the team fighting style of Duck Hunt and one of their [[PaletteSwap alternate palettes]], that the two were a [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute very obvious stand-in]] for the titular duo of ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie''. Banjo & Kazooie's release trailer for this game references this, with Duck Hunt impersonating the two as a prank before being knocked away by Banjo and Kazooie making an entrance. The first fight for Banjo & Kazooie's Classic Mode also has them fight Duck Hunt with a palette swap resembling their colors on Spiral Mountain.
86	** Byleth's trailer has Sothis asking "Too many swordsmen, are there?", referencing a common jab at the roster.
87	** The CrackPairing of Sephiroth and Pichu almost immediately took off due to the proximity of the two on the website's banner mural. A couple weeks after Sephiroth was revealed, Sakurai uploaded [[https://twitter.com/Sora_Sakurai/status/1341216892703399941 this image to twitter]] seemingly showing Sephiroth defending Pichu from attackers.
88	** When fighting on Skyworld, Steve's common Tier 1 materials are Wool blocks, which are a common choice for ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' players for building something similar to SolidClouds.
89	* GodNeverSaidThat:
90	** Near the end of the E3 2018 presentation, Sakurai said "We made including every single fighter ever our number one goal, so I'm kind of hoping you aren't expecting too many new challengers..." right before revealing Ridley. In the subsequent weeks, many video game news outlets took this to mean that the full roster had already been revealed in that presentation, and that Ridley would be the last new fighter. This was proved wrong in the following months, with an additional 8 fighters slowly being announced as joining the base game, and 13 more included as DLC.
91	** A quote circulated after Joker's reveal seeming to show that Reggie Fils-Aime said that all of the Fighters Pass DLC characters would, like Joker, be from series never before seen in ''Smash'', seemingly disconfirming basically every current major Nintendo franchise and also any further fighters from all current third-party franchises in ''Smash''. In reality, his quote from the post-Joker reveal was that all of the DLC characters would be new to ''Smash'' itself, and they would be just as unexpected as Joker, like ''VideoGame/DragonQuest''[='=]s Hero was for Japan and ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie''[='=]s Banjo & Kazooie were to Western audiences. This also applies to Nintendo characters whose series are in the base game, like ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'''s Byleth.
92	** Many people say that Sakurai based the user interface off of ''Persona 5'' and that the game was the main influence for ''Ultimate''[='=]s UI design. This got more common after the reveal of Joker. Sakurai never said anything like that, [[https://www.sourcegaming.info/2016/11/24/the-aims-of-ui-sakurais-famitsu-column-vol-515/ he simply praised the UI of the game stating that it would probably win a game UI contest by a mile]]. Tellingly, he also mentions ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' as an example of good game UI and yet no one ever mentions that game when talking about ''Ultimate''[='=]s UI. There was also minor confusion that the game took some influence from ''Persona 5''[='=]s aesthetic (with the player color, black, and white victory screens and the SuperMovePortraitAttack during the Final Smashes) but he never said anything on the manner.
93	** Online, tons of people have used made-up rules (often called "fanrules") as reasons why a particular character "couldn't" or "wouldn't" be added to ''Ultimate''. The only rule Sakurai gave is "No characters from a manga/anime"(and later used examples like Spongebob to make it clearer it meant non-video game characters), but a casual perusal of Discord servers, Twitter, and any other online gathering place will show people saying characters can't be made playable in the game for reasons like "only appearing in one game" (in spite of several characters who fit this criteria, like Ness, Ice Climbers, Lucas, and Duck Hunt already being playable), "being a Spirit, Assist Trophy, or Mii costume" (Spirits deconfirming was shot down with Min Min in the second pass and, as many have pointed out, lots of popular characters are both playable and have a Mii costume based on them, though people still argued that post-launch spirits and DLC costumes--especially those bundled with a song--were off the table as they would've been saved for a character otherwise), "their aesthetic clashing with the game" (despite there being all sorts of characters ranging from cartoony to realistic to outright blocky in the roster, and even a character who is two-dimensional), "not having moveset potential" (in a [[https://sourcegaming.info/2020/03/09/this-is-my-role-sakurais-famitsu-column-vol-598/ Famitsu column]], Sakurai shot this one down) or "not being well-known by the ''Smash'' fandom and/or general public" (this was also discredited by Sakurai in "Mr. Sakurai Presents "Terry Bogard"", where he said "whether or not the character is fun to play as is more important than whether the character is new or old, or whether the character is recognizable to everyone").
94	** During the announcement of more DLC beyond the first Fighters Pass, Sakurai said that more DLC fighters would mean adding more worlds to the game. As had happened when Reggie stated the Fighters Pass characters would be new to ''Smash'', many once again took this as all post-Fighters Pass 1 DLC would continue to solely be third-party characters, disconfirming all Nintendo franchises. In reality, Source Gaming's [=PushDustIn=] had his own translation of the statement conducted, actually meaning that every time DLC is added to the game, its scope increases. The third-party assumption would later be proven false with both the last member of the first Fighters Pass, [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses Byleth]], and the first member of the second Fighters Pass, [[VideoGame/{{ARMS}} Min Min]].
95	** After it was announced that there would be more DLC characters after the Fighters Pass, many interpreted this as an announcement of a second Fighters Pass, despite there being nothing in either the September 2019 Direct or "Mr. Sakurai Presents "Banjo & Kazooie"" that suggested that the new fighters would be in a bundle. However, [[IKnewIt this turned out to be the case]], as demonstrated with the announcement of Fighters Pass Vol. 2 at the tail end of "Mr. Sakurai Presents "Byleth"".
96	** When Sakurai [[https://twitter.com/Sora_Sakurai/status/1059958604818657282?s=19 said]] that the DLC characters were chosen by Nintendo and he decides if they can create a fighter based on them, people interpreted it that Nintendo gave Sakurai a list of characters to choose from. However, the wording didn't suggest that, and he later [[https://twitter.com/bk2128/status/1225086628772765701 said]] that the characters were not decided by him.
97	** When the game was first released with the DLC packs underway, it was implied early on that characters that appeared as Spirits in the game would not be considered eligible for promotion to fighting as a character in-game, due to the context of how Spirits came to be. It continued to be the case until Wave 2's first fighter revealed was [[VideoGame/{{ARMS}} Min Min]], a character whose Spirit was already confirmed as a Spirit to fight against in-game[[note]]Initially with female Corrin representing Min Min before the character's release.[[/note]]. With Min Min's inclusion, it opened up a second chance for characters that made it as Spirits only to appear as a fighter in ''Ultimate''.
98	** The whole segment after Steve's trailer where Sakurai briefly talked about the character's development was often twisted, either to things like "Sakurai being held at gunpoint to make Steve" or "Sakurai not liking the character". What he actually meant was that he didn't originally agree on doing the character simply because Sakurai believed that doing something true to his roots would take much, much too long. He also cites how characters aren't just simply added, as there are many parameters to consider, like how they interact with other existing characters, stages, and the like. In addition, he pointed out that he plays ''Minecraft'' himself in the announcement so it would be very strange not to like someone he knows that [[VanillaProtagonist he could project himself into]].
99	** People often quote Sakurai as saying Sephiroth is the "second most" iconic video game villain after Bowser, which resulted in fans debating whether or not that was true. What he actually said in "Mr. Sakurai Presents Sephiroth" is that Sephiroth is ''one of'' the most well-known video game villains aside from Bowser, which is more broadly worded.
100	** There were quite a number of "generally accepted rules" within the community itself when it came to speculating the eligibility of a character actually being a viable DLC potential or not. The most common ones were: 1) if the character is already a Mii Fight Costume or Assist Trophy, they won't be playable, 2) every company gets '''1''' representative. The only problem is Sakurai himself has never said this was a specific rule and the latter specifically got rather swiftly debunked the second Simon and Richter were confirmed (as Konami would now have three characters included in the game). DLC characters like Joker, the Dragon Quest Hero and Sephiroth all further blew holes into that theory.
101	** In a 2020 podcast, game journalist Imran Khan claimed that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLg0CVc5vrk&t=1551s Sakurai tried to get Sora as a DLC character but Disney turned him down]], specifically Disney Japan. Fans took this as definitive proof that Sora would never get into ''Smash.'' Sakurai's only statements on the matter after Sora finally did get confirmed is that it took extended talks, and that having Sora in the game was "a huge undertaking".
102	* HeAlsoDid: Takenobu Mitsyoshi, the musician behind the "F-Zero Medley", has worked on many games published by Sega. Namely, ''VideoGame/DaytonaUSA'', ''VideoGame/BurningRangers'', and ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}''.
103	* InspirationForTheWork: Jun Senoue stated his inspiration to make the Sonic Adventure-esque Mega Man 4 medley was seeing the [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide Sonic and Mega Man]] [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsUnite crossover Archie comics]].
104	* KillerApp: ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' was positioned as the keystone for Nintendo's holiday 2018 season, and it not only moved many Switch units when it launched but also sold so many copies itself that within just 4 months (13.81 million worldwide by then) it became the best-selling FightingGame of all time.
105	* MarthDebutedInSmashBros: Thanks to ''VideoGame/DragonQuestX'' still not being localized at the time of the ''Dragon Quest'' Hero's release, this marks the first appearance of the hero from ''DQX'' to Western audiences.
106	* MeaningfulReleaseDate: The "Mr. Sakurai Presents" video for Sephiroth is on December 18, 2020 in Japan, which is the same date as [[Videogame/FinalFantasyI the original Final Fantasy]]'s 33rd anniversary.
107	* MemeAcknowledgment:
108	** [[http://twitter.com/NintendoVS/status/1027194975535001601 This]] Nintendo Versus tweet announcing Richter's debut in ''Ultimate'' says "Enough talk! Have at you!" in reference to one of {{Dracula}}'s lines from the infamous dialogue between Richter and Dracula in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight''. The announcement of the Castlevania-themed event for the Spirit Board also riffs on this line.
109	** [[http://twitter.com/NintendoUKVS/status/1091380253539352576 This]] Nintendo UK VS tweet wishes luck to all the European players at the Genesis ''Smash'' tournament... with a picture depicting four King Dededes on Battlefield-form Summit, referencing the "[[http://twitter.com/TSM_Leffen/status/1089375754205446145 European players are penguins]]" meme that started just days prior.
110	** [[http://twitter.com/NintendoVS/status/1091418406304149507 This]] Nintendo Versus tweet mentions the Plant Gang, Piranha Plant mains' term for themselves.
111	** [[http://twitter.com/NintendoVS/status/1094295916993892352 This]] Nintendo Versus tweet refers to Yoshi as "no fraud", in reference to the memetic allegations that [[Memes/SuperMarioBros Yoshi commits tax fraud]].
112	** A couple from Masahiro Sakurai in the final video presentation:
113	*** He acknowledges the “Can it run ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''?” meme, saying he heard the game Doom Slayer is from can run on any computer.
114	*** He expresses his disbelief that "he" is in ''Smash'' while pitting Sora against Mario. Sakurai clarifies that he isn't talking about Mario, but Sora, which is a reference to the "Mario is finally in ''Smash''" meme.
115	** One of Mythra's taunts has her say "Think you can take me?" This is a reference to a memorable line that the Ardanian soldiers say in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2''.
116	** When round #10 of the Mii fighter costumes releashed, Nintendo of Europe subtly mentions that this round features Dante. This is a reference to the "Featuring Dante from the ''Devil May Cry'' series" meme from ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne''.
117	* MilestoneCelebration:
118	** ''SSB Ultimate''[='=]s nature as a DreamMatchGame is especially significant because it came out one month before the entire ''Super Smash Bros.'' series' 20th anniversary.
119	** The first trailer for the game was released on March 8, 2018, one day before the 10th anniversary of the North American release of ''Brawl''.
120	** ''Ultimate'' brings back Young Link and Ganondorf's ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' design, just in time for that game's 20th anniversary. Ganon's beast form from that game is also a boss.
121	** The game's one-year anniversary gets celebrated with a Spirit Board event. In particular, [[https://nintendoeverything.com/wp-content/uploads/spirit-board-event-dec-5.jpg the image that represents this event]] features every newcomer in ''Ultimate'' up to that point, as well as every other character that came back after being PutOnABus in either ''Brawl'' or ''[=3DS/Wii U=]'' (or both in Young Link and Pichu's case). Inkling [[CallBack even gets the ''Smash'' logo in her eye, again!]]
122	** ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'' was released July 13, 2018, and a Spirit Event for the game occured July 10-15, 2020.
123	** Delayed by a month, but ''Ultimate'' began celebrating its own 5th anniversary with the introduction of new Spirits in January 2024, including Rauru from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'', Deep Cut from ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'', and Zagreus from ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}''.
124	* MissingTrailerScene: The dialogue for Joker's reveal trailer at The Game Awards 2018 is different at the beginning from the version released on the ''Smash Bros.'' website. The Game Awards trailer has Joker mentioning he's infiltrated the Awards Show and the rest of his team are shocked he ran off alone until Morgana explains why. The online version removes all mentions of The Game Awards.
125	--> '''TGA Version'''
126	---> '''Joker:''' This is Joker, I've infiltrated the theater.\
127	'''Ryuji:''' Wait, seriously?! He went alone to The Game Awards?!\
128	'''Ann:''' But it's so far away, why is he there?
129	--> '''Online Version'''
130	---> '''Joker:''' This is Joker, the mission is go.\
131	'''Ryuji:''' Wait a second! You mean...he went alone?!\
132	'''Ann:''' What's so important that he'd run off by himself?
133	* ModelDissonance: Kazuya's [[https://twitter.com/fffightinfacts/status/1406327632111849478 Spinning Demon move]] causes his body to distort the same way it would in ''Tekken''.
134	* NewbieBoom: As a running theme among first-party titles to the Platform/NintendoSwitch, this game brought in a whole ton of fans that had never played a ''Smash Bros.'' game before due to the hype train surrounding it before release and the Switch's install base, which has led to the game slowly selling ''Brawl''[='=]s lifetime sales in a month. This has led to a lot of people experiencing many of the things that ''for 3DS/Wii U'' introduced. The boom was especially apparent in Japan, where the series had definitely been popular [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff but not nearly as popular as it is in North America]]; ''Ultimate'' managed to outsell the lifetime sales of the previous Japanese best-seller (''for 3DS'' at about 2.5 million) in a bit over a month.
135	* NoBudget: [[https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sakurai-suggests-low-budget-release-reveal-for-banjo-kazooie-in-smash/ According to Sakurai]], the budget for the DLC characters' gameplay overviews practically ran out after Joker's flashy trailer, which is how the "mock livestream" setup, "Mr. Sakurai Presents", came about for the gameplay overviews for every other DLC character, with a special set-up at home under quarantine for Min Min, Steve and Pyra/Mythra. Fan reactions to this setup have been very positive regardless.
136	* NoDubForYou:
137	** None of the Sakurai Presentations for the fighters included in the second Fighters Pass are dubbed as a drawback of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in subtitles being added to all presentations outside of Japan, as opposed to outside of Japan and English-speaking countries. This also extends to their crowd cheers (barring Pyra and Mythra due to their DubNameChange); while Min Min, Zombie, Sephiroth, Kazuya, and Sora can get away with it, Steve, Alex, and Enderman's crowd cheers sound too much like "Stivu!", "Alesu!", and "Endamon!" to be from native English speakers.
138	** From a character standpoint, Cloud is still voiced by Creator/TakahiroSakurai due to Steve Burton's complicated contractual issues stemming from him being part of a union and the ''Smash'' dub being a non-union work. Meanwhile, Sephiroth is voiced by his Japanese voice actor Creator/ToshiyukiMorikawa, rather than English [=VAs=] [[Music/NSync Lance Bass]] or George Newbern.
139	** The Hero from ''VideoGame/DragonQuestXI'' is also not dubbed despite having a prior English voice actor, Rasmus Hardiker. However, it's less of a big deal in his case since in both his source game and ''Smash'' [[NonDubbedGrunts his only vocalizations are grunts.]]
140	** Kazuya has only his Japanese voice, provided by Masanori Shinohara. While he has had a few English voice actors in the past (with [[Creator/KyleHebert one of them]] in this game), ''Tekken'' games have the characters speak BilingualDialogue where, more often than not, each character speaks their native tongue, so keeping Kazuya with only his Japanese voice makes sense.
141	* TheOriginalDarrin:
142	** This game and ''VideoGame/SuperBomberman R'' mark the first time Creator/DavidHayter gets to reprise his role as Solid Snake after Creator/KieferSutherland took over Snake duties in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain''[[note]]Though that was as Venom Snake/Big Boss, not Solid Snake[[/note]]. Before these two games, the last time Hayter played Snake was in 2010's ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker''.
143	** Creator/LauraBailey returns as Lucina after she was [[TheOtherDarrin darrin'd]] by Creator/AlexisTipton in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriors'' via recycled voice clips.
144	** While Lyn is played by Creator/LaniMinella in ''Smash'' games, all English ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' media starting with ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'' (which was released after ''For 3DS/Wii U'') has her played by Creator/WendeeLee. Since ''Ultimate'' opted to recycle voice clips from previous games instead of updating them, Lyn is once again played by Minella.[[note]]Wendee Lee is still in the credits, however.[[/note]]
145	* TheOtherDarrin:
146	** Kengo Takanashi takes over as Link, replacing Creator/AkiraSasanuma after ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild''.
147	** Zelda and Sheik are now voiced by Creator/AyumiFujimura (reprising her role as Zelda from ''A Link Between Worlds'') rather than Jun Mizusawa. For a brief moment in the English World of Light introduction, Zelda is voiced by Brandy Kopp as well. For the case of the ''Link to the Past'' Zelda, Ayumi replaces Creator/MarikoKouda, who played this incarnation of Zelda in VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaAncientStoneTablets and ''The Legend of Zelda: Sound and Drama''.
148	** Dayci Brookshire takes over Creator/HyndenWalch's role as [[VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising Viridi]]. In addition to recording all of Viridi's lines during the new Palutena's Guidance conversations, Brookshire also redubbed all of Viridi's old dialogue from ''Smash 4''.
149	** While Takashi Nagasako does [[TheOriginalDarrin return]] to replace Hironori Miyata as the voice of Ganondorf, he does ''not'' do so for his other major role as Donkey Kong, whom he voices in most games outside of the ''Smash'' series, with DK once again using his [[SillyAnimalSound realistic gorilla roars]] from previous entries. This also applies to Bowser, Diddy, and King K. Rool, who all utilize StockSoundEffects instead of being voiced by Kenny James, Creator/KatsumiSuzuki, and Toshihide Tsuchiya respectively.
150	** Billy Bob Thompson takes over for Michele Knotz as the male Pokémon Trainer, though Knotz still reprises Squirtle in the roster. Additionally, Ivysaur is now voiced by Justin Anselmi rather than Craig Blair in English, and by Inuko Inuyama (replacing the late Creator/TomokoKawakami) in Japanese. In the Italian version, Tania Di Domenico replaces Francesca Giudice as Pokémon Trainer.
151	** Creator/SatomiKoorogi takes over for Creator/ShokoNakagawa as the voice of Spiky-Eared Pichu in this game. The latter had originally voiced Spiky-Eared Pichu in ''Anime/PokemonArceusAndTheJewelOfLife''.
152	** Transitioning from ''[[VideoGame/StarFoxAssault Assault]]'' to ''[[VideoGame/StarFox64 64 3D]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/StarFoxZero Zero]]'': Takashi Ohara replaces Creator/KenjiNojima as the voice of Fox, while Kosuke Takaguchi takes over for Creator/HisaoEgawa as Falco, and for Mahito Oba as Wolf.
153	** On the Saffron City stage, all the Pokémon are voiced by their current voice actors:
154	*** Justin Anselmi as Venusaur in place of Eric Stuart.
155	*** Billy Bob Thompson as Charmander in place of Michael Haigney (despite his clips being retained for Snorlax).
156	*** Sarah Natochenny as Chansey in place of Rachel Lillis.
157	*** Oddly, Porygon is voiced by Creator/MegumiHayashibara instead of Katsuyuki Konishi despite the Virtual Pokémon not appearing in the anime ever since the infamous "Electric Soldier Porygon" episode.
158	* PosthumousCredit:
159	** Incineroar is voiced in Japanese by Creator/UnshoIshizuka, who died of esophageal cancer 4 months before the release of ''Ultimate''. Archived audio of Ishizuka as [[Franchise/{{Tekken}} Heihachi Mishima]] from ''Tekken Tag Tournament 2'' (which were later recycled from ''7'' onwards) is also used for Heihachi's appearance in the Mishima Dojo stage.
160	** [[VideoGame/MetalGear Colonel Roy Campbell]] appears in the game via reused codec calls from ''Brawl''. His Japanese voice actor, Creator/TakeshiAono, died of a stroke in 2012. His passing is a heavily cited reason as to why there are no new codecs, since this was the exact reason why Campbell was [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim retired from the series]].
161	** Grey Fox's Japanese voice clips were archived from ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' where he was voiced by Creator/KanetoShiozawa, who died from a cerebral contusion in 2000.
162	* PreOrderBonus: Of a sort: from December 17 - 22, 2020, players who purchased the Sephiroth DLC or Fighters Pass Vol. 2 could play the Sephiroth Challenge, which features him as a boss. If they cleared the challenge, they could play him and his stage before the general release on December 22, 2020 (his Spirit Board was still locked until the official day release).
163	* ProductionLeadTime: The game, due to having a short development period and having many of its planned contents decided almost from the beginning, got hit by this in various fronts:
164	** Despite ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' coming out a year and a half before ''Ultimate'', ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' content is almost entirely based on the first game, with ''2'''s inclusion being limited to a pair of Mii costumes and content taken directly from the original game (such as music and spirits). Notably, the Inkling character itself has zero reference to the second game, with their Final Smash being a move that was cut altogether from the sequels.
165	** The base roster and first set of DLC in ''Ultimate'' were locked in before the release dates of ''VideoGame/{{ARMS}}'' and ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', so they had to compromise by representing them with Mii costumes, spirits, and music. Characters and extra content overall from both games were eventually included in the second set of DLC.
166	** Many of the DLC characters took years of negotiating to include, and as a result not all of them are portrayed in a manner that corresponded to then-current developments. For instance, [[Franchise/KingdomHearts Sora]], who was released in 2021 but in negotiations since the Smash Ballot in 2015, only minimally references ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', which was released in 2019.
167	* PromotedFanboy:
168	** ''Ultimate'' features content from ''VideoGame/{{Snipperclips}}'', made by a group that once named themselves the ''Super Flash Bros.'' after their love for the series.
169	** Tomoya Ohtani, of ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' fame, is also a [[https://twitter.com/Ohtanitter/status/1565273291798880256 big fan of the ''Splatoon'' series]]. When given the opportunity to remix music from the series, he immediately jumped at the chance and was even indecisive on which track from the game to remix, before finally settling on "Bomb Rush Blush".
170	** Creator/RayChase [[https://twitter.com/raychase/status/1070905765139906560?lang=en loved Roy]] in ''Melee'' before getting to be his English voice actor.
171	** Playtesters for the game [[https://twitter.com/Meshima_/status/1070696178788925440 include Japanese competitive Smash players]].
172	** An accidental example - the [[VideoGame/Mother3 Masked Man]] Spirit used [[https://twitter.com/RandomTBush/status/1072809310005153793 a fan-made sprite]] prior to Version 2.0.0, which was replaced by his canon sprite in that patch.
173	** Creator/AbbyTrott, the singer of the English version of "Lifelight", is a life-long fan of Nintendo and [[https://www.p-nintendo.com/articles/interviews/notre-interview-d-abby-trott-interprete-du-theme-de-smash-bros-252451 said]] that she [[TearsOfJoy cried]] when she was told that the song was for ''Smash''.
174	** Erina Koga, the singer for the Japanese version of "Lifelight" was also a fan of ''Smash'' via playing as Kirby. She didn't actually know Sakurai created Kirby until she looked him up after meeting him in person.
175	** According to Sakurai, it was a dream for Creator/YuukiKaji, the voice actor for [[VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII Eight]], to provide voicework for both ''Dragon Quest'' and ''Smash Bros''. Kaji was more than happy to express his excitement [[https://twitter.com/KAJI_staff/status/1156199770328666113 on Twitter]].
176	** Sakurai himself used to play many SNK games in Japanese arcades and on the Neo-Geo, and the presentation video for Terry makes it very obvious that Sakurai is very ecstatic to be working with the characters from the games he grew up playing so much and eager to go over the games' history.
177	** Creator/ZachAguilar, the voice of male Byleth, [[https://twitter.com/airzach/status/1217813010367959040 said]] that it was a dream come true to voice him in ''Smash Bros''.
178	* PropRecycling:
179	** Much like with Mega Man and Pac-Man almost entirely using unmodified sound effects from their original series, Banjo and Kazooie's voice clips are the same ones they had in their original games.
180	** Due to the nature of [[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Steve and the following representations of the franchise]], [[ExaggeratedTrope practically everything from the original game was lifted for use here]], from sound effects to graphics retaining their original resolution and texture layouts with little to no modifications.
181	** The ''[[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters King of Fighters]]'' cameos on King of Fighters Stadium use edited models from ''The King of Fighters XIV''. This is why some characters like Blue Mary use their designs lifted directly from that game rather than older ''VideoGame/ArtOfFighting'' / ''VideoGame/FatalFury'' / ''The King of Fighters'' games. In turn, the ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' cameos in the Garreg Mach Monastery stage reuse animations from the ''King of Fighters'' characters.
182	** The [[VideoGame/Persona5 Phantom Thieves]] cameos on Mementos utilize edited models from ''VideoGame/Persona5DancingInStarlight''.
183	* RefittedForSequel:
184	** Ditto was originally supposed to be implemented as a Poké Ball Pokémon as far back as ''Melee'', but hardware limitations prevented it from being used. Ditto was finally implemented once the Switch had the processing power to have it transform into a duplicate AI partner of the player.
185	** Fourside's [[https://youtu.be/Q7Ztg7aSshI music]] was originally supposed to have a country western theme to it in ''Melee'', but thanks to ExecutiveMeddling, it was changed to have a sci-fi sound to it. The [[https://youtu.be/_Cazb8GDxJ4 remix]] of Fourside in ''Ultimate'' revisits the original concept and has an electric western sound to it.
186	** The plot of ''World of Light'' is one of the ideas that Sakurai had for ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]''[='s=] ''Subspace Emissary''.
187	--->'''Sakurai:''' [[http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/ssbb/3/1 I had envisioned a more serious tone for the story. Something with some misfortune like a single character escaping total annihilation of his squadron and then fighting back while rounding up his allies.]]
188	** A variant; [[VideoGame/{{Tekken}} Heihachi]] was initially considered for ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU 4]]'', but Sakurai had trouble implementing his moveset, so he ended up settling with Pac-Man as the sole Bandai Namco fighter. The idea of a ''Tekken'' character with full mechanical implementation would ultimately be applied to Kazuya instead.
189	* RoleReprise:
190	** Creator/YuriLowenthal provides Marth's English voice for the first time in ''Smash'' history, and reprises his old role as [[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} Alucard]]. Creator/RayChase and Creator/GregChun reprise their roles as Roy and Ike respectively from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'', with Chun also being TheOtherDarrin to Jason Adkins.
191	** Creator/JohnnyYongBosch continues to voice [[VideoGame/MegaManX Zero]], following on his appearances in the ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom'' games.
192	** Creator/KeithSilverstein and Creator/DavidVincent return to voice Simon and Richter Belmont, reprising their appearances from ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaJudgment'' and ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaTheDraculaXChronicles''[[note]]as well as the PSP ports of ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood'' and ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'', which were hidden extras in ''Chronicles''[[/note]], respectively.
193	** Interestingly, in the Japanese version, Creator/KiyoyukiYanada returns to voice Richter after playing him in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight''. Creator/HideoIshikawa reprises his role as Simon, '''15 years''' after voicing him in another MascotFighter; ''VideoGame/DreamMixTVWorldFighters'' (which, funnily enough, also happens to feature Snake as a playable fighter).
194	** Ken is once again voiced by Creator/ReubenLangdon (who began voicing him since ''Street Fighter IV'' back in 2008) in English, and by Creator/YujiKishi (who voiced him since ''Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike'' all the way back in 1999) in Japanese.
195	** Creator/TakashiNagasako once again voices Ganondorf for the first time since ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' (not counting the 3DS remake of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'').
196	** ''Ultimate'' is the first game in which the English voice of Fox isn't recast. Mike West not only returns, but Sakurai confirmed that all of his dialogue was re-recorded, indicating he's aware of the poor reception to West's voice acting in the previous game and the subsequent vast improvement he made for ''VideoGame/StarFoxZero''.
197	** Jay Ward returns from ''Brawl'' to voice Wolf in ''Ultimate'' (not using his VA in ''[[VideoGame/StarFox64 Star Fox 64 3D]]'' and ''VideoGame/StarFoxZero''). However he voices him with a new style - with a slightly deeper and rougher voice rather than having a Southern drawl.
198	** In English, at least, this is also the first time the announcer and Master Hand weren't recast, with Creator/XanderMobus returning from the [=3DS/Wii=] U game to voice them once again after every other game [[TheOtherDarrin gave them different voice actors]].
199	** The English and Japanese cast of ''VideoGame/Persona5'' return for ''Ultimate'', which includes Creator/XanderMobus[=/=]Creator/JunFukuyama as Joker, Creator/CassandraLeeMorris[=/=]Creator/IkueOtani as Morgana, Creator/MaxMittelman[=/=]Creator/MamoruMiyano as Ryuji, Creator/ErikaHarlacher[=/=]Creator/NanaMizuki as Ann, Creator/MatthewMercer[=/=]Creator/TomokazuSugita as Yusuke, Creator/CheramiLeigh[=/=]Creator/RinaSato as Makoto, Creator/EricaLindbeck[=/=]Creator/AoiYuuki as Futaba and Creator/XantheHuynh[=/=]Creator/HarukaTomatsu as Haru.
200	** The Hero's default voice, Creator/MitsukiSaiga, returns to voice the default costume, Eleven, from ''VideoGame/DragonQuestXI''.
201	** Creator/TakashiKondo returns to voice Terry, having held the role down since ''The King of Fighters XIV'' back in 2016.
202	** All four voice actors for Byleth return from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' - Creator/YuusukeKobayashi (male) and Creator/ShizukaIto (female) in Japanese, Creator/ZachAguilar (male) and Creator/JeannieTirado (female) in English. Creator/TomoyoKurosawa and Creator/CassandraLeeMorris also return as Sothis in Japanese and English respectively.
203	** Haruna Takatsu reprises her role as Min Min for ''Ultimate'' as well.
204	** While all Captain Falcon's dialogue by Creator/RyoHorikawa has been in place since ''64'' (including the then-unused Final Smash quote), he was asked to record new dialogue for the first time in 22 years for Min Min's trailer, specifically for Captain Falcon eating and slurping ramen noodles.
205	** Creator/ToshiyukiMorikawa returns as the Japanese voice of Sephiroth; much like Cloud before him, this applies to Sephiroth's appearances in all regions in the game. This continues the trend set since ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren'' was released in 2005, 15 years before Sephiroth's inclusion as a playable fighter.
206	** Creator/ShinoShimoji and Creator/SkyeBennett return as the voice of Pyra and Mythra from ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', while Creator/HiroShimono and Al Weaver returns as Rex.
207	** Masanori Shinohara reprises his role as Kazuya Mishima as per usual; Kazuya's inclusion in ''Smash'' just so happens to coincide with a full 20 years he's voiced the character since ''Tekken 4'' all the way back in 2001.
208	** Creator/MiyuIrino and Creator/HaleyJoelOsment reprise Sora in their respective languages (albeit via recycled voice clips). This marks the first time a member of the ''Smash'' roster is voiced by a CelebrityVoiceActor, and the first Square Enix-affiliated fighter to have an English voice after Cloud, Hero and Sephiroth went undubbed.
209	* ScrewedByTheLawyers:
210	** [[https://www.sourcegaming.info/2018/09/05/no-such-thing-as-bad-music-in-a-great-game-sakurais-famitsu-column-vol-562/ In one of Sakurai's Famitsu Columns]], he mentioned that it was either very expensive or very difficult to secure the rights to some of the music for a worldwide release. While he didn't say ''which'' franchises were affected by this, most people conclude that is the reason why the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' and ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' franchises in particular have a limited amount of songs in the game. Similarly, this was also assumed for the ''Franchise/DragonQuest'' songs after Hero was released, due to the songs in the game only being in MIDI format, and their composer the late Koichi Sugiyama being infamously difficult to work with. In the presentation for Sephiroth, Sakurai states that which songs and how many can be featured in ''Super Smash Bros.'' depends on getting the approval by the company or companies that hold the copyright and, in some cases, in every region, and confirms this as the reason why ''Final Fantasy'' has had a very limited selection of songs in ''for Wii U / 3DS'' and the base content of ''Ultimate'' (with Sephiroth's inclusion, the franchise has an additional nine songs).
211	** Among the very few songs from ''Brawl'' not returning for ''Ultimate'' are [[VideoGame/KirbyAirRide Checker Knights]], which was originally from the anime ''Anime/KirbyRightBackAtYa'', and all of the Strawberry Flower songs for the ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'' stages, which no doubt would have carried a fatter price tag than the songs owned wholly by Nintendo.
212	** The reason that Cloud [[NoDubForYou still isn't dubbed in English]] is because Cloud's English voice actor prior to 2020, Steve Burton, is a union member and the game's dub is a non-union project. Other union actors who appear in the game get around this by using pseudonyms or [[UncreditedRole not appearing in the credits]], but Burton's contract required that (a) he [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake used to be]] the only one who could voice Cloud in English, and (b) that he must be credited using his real name in any project he appears in before he got replaced by Creator/CodyChristian. Furthermore, the Creator/CrispinGlover Rule in the SAG-AFTRA collective bargaining agreement prevented Square Enix and Nintendo from just [[FakeShemp re-using Burton's archived audio of Cloud from past appearances]] without paying a ridiculously large amount of money. All of these rules and red tape combined make it impossible for Steve Burton to voice Cloud in ''Smash'', in any shape or form and this is unlikely to change any time soon, as Yoshinori Kitase has confirmed Cody Christian will only be Cloud's voice actor in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' and its sequels and no other projects.
213	** While in his livestream, Sakurai stated that there would be no music from the original ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' because the music in that game was "too relaxing", elsewhere he's alluded to other issues leading to the omission. The classic Music/{{C418}} composed tracks are likely absent due to him personally holding his song's publishing rights (having declined to give them to Microsoft), leading to complications for re-licencing them, though why the later Lena Raine composed tracks (which in contrast are owned by Microsoft) are also missing isn't known.
214	** The music from ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' isn't owned by Nintendo, so it would require them to license it. This is likely the reason why fan favorites like "Black Tar" and "Uncontrollable" were excluded from this game.
215	** ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound\|1994}}'' is the only series that lacks sourced music. It’s been speculated that it’s either due to distribution rights not being owned by Nintendo or the sampling used in some of the game’s music.
216	* SerendipityWritesThePlot: The original idea for a ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' fighter was to have Rex and Pyra/Mythra fight together, but it turned out to be rather complex to implement within the game's limitations, so that idea was scrapped in favor of just Pyra/Mythra.
217	* SpoiledByTheMerchandise: Infamously, after Isabelle was revealed, the box for the Special Edition was unveiled, showing off every fighter revealed thus far (except for Isabelle) on the sides. Because of the way the characters were organized, it implied that only two characters were left to be revealed, with one of them being an Echo Fighter of one fighter from a specific set of characters. People figured out that the two missing characters were Ken and Incineroar, which the leaker Vergeben later confirmed.
218	* TeasingCreator: Nintendo had a bit of fun with this one: In the ''VideoGame/{{ARMS}}'' series DLC reveal for ''Ultimate'', shown during the March 26, 2020 mini-Direct, the only clue given for the character was "This fighter's arms can exteeeend!". A quote punctuated by [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles a character gallery for ARMS' entire roster]].
219	* ThrowItIn:
220	** Sakurai noted during an interview that the reversibility of the World of Light's Japanese title to refer to Kirby [[note]]灯火の星/Hoshi no Kabi. Kabi being the Japanese pronunciation of Kirby, meaning if you reversed the order of the characters, it could be read as "Kirby of the Stars"[[/note]] was a coincidence, but one that they did notice during development and ultimately left in.
221	** In a less intentional case, the "Don't be late. [S]" message in Terry's reveal trailer actually stemmed from an in-joke among the staff, with the "S" in brackets standing for Sakurai. The man himself was quite embarrassed when he found out that it was left in, and he stated that the "S" could also mean ''Super Smash Bros.''
222	** At some point before or during ''Ultimate''[='=]s development, Creator/{{WayForward\|Technologies}} decided to email to Nintendo two company-grade [=PNGs=] of VideoGame/{{Shantae}} and Risky Boots, saying that they could do whatever they wanted with them. Nintendo's response was to convert them into Spirits in ''Ultimate'', which [=WayForward=] never found out about until after the game was released.
223	%%
224	%% Trolling Creator refers to a creator deliberately making a move to enrage their own fanbase. Before adding an example for this trope, make sure that this was clearly Sakurai or Nintendo's intent. If not, perhaps it would be more fitting for tropes like Bait and Switch, Lying Creator, Teasing Creator, The Walrus Was Paul, or Exact Words.
225	%%
226	* TrollingCreator: In a jab at fans who complain that there are "too many anime sword-users," Byleth is initially shown off in his/her trailer using only sword attacks alongside other sword-wielders to fool those fans into thinking that he/she is just another generic ''Fire Emblem'' character. To show that Nintendo is well aware of this complaint, Sothis wryly remarks, "Too many swordsmen, are there?" and only after that is it revealed that Byleth can actually use a variety of different weapons.
227	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/SuperSmashBros Has its own page along with the rest of the series]].
228	* WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings: Nintendo went '''nuclear''' when ''Smash Ultimate'' was leaked more than two weeks ahead of schedule, striking down [=YouTube=] channels (such as that of longtime game soundtrack uploader Crunchii) that uploaded music videos, Classic and World of Light videos, and generally a wide assortment of ''Smash'' footage.
229	* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: [[https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sakurai-suggests-low-budget-release-reveal-for-banjo-kazooie-in-smash/ According to Sakurai]], he ad-libbed the entirety of the Hero's trailer.

Context Trivia / SuperSmashBrosUltimate